It’s not 1987 and White Snake is no longer on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 chart at #7 with their hit “Here I Go Again”. Back then times were easy, the APFT was alive and well and it didn’t take much to train for it. Just a couple of simple movements that you could do anywhere. Now it’s on death row waiting to get lethal injected in a few months for the ACFT to come. You don’t have to keep searchin’ for an answer and never seeming to find what you’re lookin’ for. Stop walking the lonely streets of dreams. You don’t have to keep goin’ down the only road you’ve ever known. You’re not a drifter that was born to walk alone.  So make up your mind, and stop wasting all your time. Funny how a google search turns into falling down a 2-hour rabbit hole of the Top 100 songs of 1987. Welp it happened and this is where we are now.

“Here I Go Again” – Whitesnake

Now you’re probably wondering why I chose to reference a White Snake song for this Blog in the first sentence. To be honest I have wrote and scrapped 4 variations of this blog so far, so “Here I go again.” I said that to myself when I opened up my computer this 3^rd time and thought, “Isn’t that a song?” Hence, where the 2-hour rabbit hole came in. After looking at the lyrics, it seemed only fitting to help describe all those soldiers who are out there on their own without any help when it comes to training for the ACFT. But musical metaphors aside, I’m here to help you with the Army’s ACFT Leg Tuck. Going to keep rolling with the Top 100 Songs of 1987 throughout so feel free to click on the song title if you need a little break.

“I Think We’re Alone Now” – Tiffany

I hope were alone now, because someone will probably get mad for what I’m about to say. Now, I have a few theories on how the Leg Tuck came to be in the ACFT. I’d bet all my money that they wanted Pull-Ups included, or at least one person did. And the brave soul that suggested it was probably shot on site (I mean verbally shot on site, but maybe also phyiscally shot on site too). Then after some time a “compromise” was reached. I put compromise in quotations because, just based on doing some Leg Tucks, you still need a decent amount of upper body strength. Hence why I still haven’t come across someone who can do a Leg Tuck without being able to do a pull-up. I imagine when they were in the meeting deciding what to include/exclude someone said, “What about a chin over the bar hold for time?”. I like to picture this suggestion coming while MPs are dragging the lifeless body of the person who suggested pull-ups out of the room. And then this person was tazed for it being “too easy” and dragged from the room as well. Then after a Colonel told a long-winded story about watching his grandkids on the monkey bars, the Leg Tuck was born. Seems plausible to me. But I can do one better. First I got to head down another rabbit hole, I’ll be right back.

“(I Just) Died in Your Arms “- Cutting Crew

How great would it be if they researched the strongest/fittest animals in the world? And they were trying to come up with movements based on their feats of strength/fitness? Imagine a young, vibrant, chiseled Harambe in his home state of Texas, before moving to Cincy. Smashing bananas to his face and doing his usual 6-minute ab routine of hanging core exercises when someone saw a YouTube video of what turned out to be the Leg Tuck. I know that is not how it was created, but it’d be pretty fucking cool if it was. If anyone knows what the other movements being considered were please let me know. Also, if choosing that song offends you it might get worse. #RIPHarambe

“Bad” – Michael Jackson

Results are rolling in and they ain’t looking good. More like Bad…get it?!? I heard rumors about the failure rates of soldiers and I am not shocked. Of course there were going to be hiccups along the way and people were going to fail; everyone knew that. At least I hope everyone knew that. I just don’t believe that they were expecting the amount of failures that they are seeing. There also has been a high number of people that can’t even take the test because there aren’t any alternate events established yet. But, surprise, surprise, the majority of the failures are coming on the Leg Tuck. Real shocker there (I’m 100% being sarcastic). I was however surprised to learn that the Power Throw was actually causing quite a few failures for females. I’ll get started on a blog for that once this one is done. Across the board, failure rates have in-fact been higher for females based on the info I was given. I’m not shocked by that. And I’m not shocked by the fact it is the Leg Tuck that is causing the most.

“Livin on a Prayer” – Bon Jovi

It’s like higher ups were living on a prayer that people were going to do well on the Leg Tuck. You go from never having pull-ups in as a physical requirement of the PT test to now asking people to do a weird half-a-pull-up-knees-to-elbowey-thing-a-ma-jig. I’m not saying they didn’t have a strategy in place but it seems to me that if they did have one they didn’t communicate it very well to everyone involved. I don’t know, maybe the 1 million soldiers in the Army could’ve been warned about this… Maybe it’s my background, but as soon as I see the Leg Tuck I instantly see that people need to get stronger at pull-ups, chin-ups and any vertical pulling exercise. If they blasted a memo out saying this is coming, get all of your people doing strict pull-ups immediately I’ll retract my previous statement but I don’t think that happened. So what the hell did they expect?

“Keep Your Hands to Yourself” – The Georgia Satellites

I’ve been on the US Army’s website for the ACFT and in there “How to Train for this Event?” section of the Leg Tuck it shows three exercises, two of which are ground based core movements and one pull-up movement that requires 3 people. Huh? What in the actual fuck are we doing here people? Why do 3 people need to be involved in a pull-up exercise? If you want to watch the video CLICK HERE and scroll to find the Alternating Grip Pull-Up. If you ever do this exercise, it is a good exercise to do solo, DON’T HOLD THE PERSONS FEET EVER on a pull-up or chin-up or any other movement where someone is hanging from a pull-up bar. Riddle me this Batman? What happens if the person’s hands slip off the bar and you’re holding their feet? Can you see it in your mind? If you can’t picture what would happen go test it out and make sure someone is videoing.

Here is a PSA for Spotting a Pull-Up Safely & Effectively: If you are going to be the spotter stand behind them, don’t hold their feet and if you’re going to give them assistance place both of your hands on the mid-upper back, over/on the inside edges of the shoulder blades. And for sure don’t spot them from the front like they are in the video too. You’re just asking to get sued or metoo’d when your hands start pushing on their chest.

“Fight for Your Right” – Beastie Boys

One of the big limiting factors that I’ve come to find, is sadly, the majority of active-duty soldiers in the United States Army cannot do a pull-up. And guess what? If you can’t do a pull-up I’m 99.3% sure that you can’t do a leg tuck either. My goal for all of my members, male or female, has always been to get them as strong as possible at pull-ups. And anyone that has ever come to me for help and was willing to put in the work has done just that. The key work there is WORK! So yeah, the Leg Tuck “is a core exercise”, but it is way more of a pull-up exercise than anything else. And hey, it was a way to sneak in pull-ups without actually putting in pull-ups. I just feel bad for the soldier who got shot for suggesting pull-ups for the test because they basically found a loop hole to get them in with the lay person not realizing.

“Only In My Dreams” – Debbie Gibson

I’d say it’s a fairly well known fact that women on average have weaker upper bodies in comparison to men. Hold on, don’t get mad. Before everyone gets all up in arms, that doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of crushing pull-ups and Leg Tucks. Don’t listen to Debbie on this one, it’s not only in my dreams. I have worked with a number of female members at the gym that can crush Leg Tucks, as in get well over the minimum standards and get into the teens. Guess what they all have in common? They can do pull-ups for reps as well as do weighted pull-ups for reps. The women who have reached out to me by email have all been able to progress to doing pull-ups and then into doing leg tucks. The same also applies to the males that I work with as well. The ones that can crush Leg Tucks can blast out pull-ups and can do heavy weighted pull-ups. The males that can’t are driving the struggle bus when it comes to being able to do Leg Tucks. I haven’t worked with any non-binary people yet but I’ll go out on a limb and say they would be in the same boat.

“Land of Confusion” – Genesis

People always seem to be confused with how long it takes to go from not being able to do a strict pull-up to doing a few sets. It takes a lot of work, time and effort. If you can’t lower yourself from a bar under control for five seconds it is going to be a really long road. But it is possible. What you need to do is mentally wrap your head around that this is a process, this is something that you can achieve, but it is going to require you to be consistent and dedicated to your overall goal. The hack to get good at pull-ups is to do pull-ups. Pretty novel idea. If you are someone who cannot do a pull-up and you are also someone that doesn’t work on the things needed to be able to do a pull-up you won’t just wake up and be able to do a pull-up. I feel thats common sense, I mean I used to feel that was common sense, however I have learned over the years that people think everything just will come to them if they think about it. Welcome to reality, it won’t. But it can if you are willing to work for it. If you are willing to dedicate yourself to the task and if you are willing to sacrifice your time and energy to the process I can get you to doing pull-ups, then Leg Tucks.

“Respect Yourself “- Bruce Willis

What’s really crazy is I heard someone is dropping their retirement packet so they won’t be subjected to the test. You know who wouldn’t retire? That’s right, John “MF’n” McClane himself. If Leg Tucks were added to the NYPD PT test he wouldn’t retire. He’d reach out to me. Granted I was 7 in ’88 when the Nakatomi Tower hostage incident occurred but you get the point. Even LAPD Sergeant Al Powell would’ve reached out too, and hopefully given up his twinkie habit as well, see Priority #3 below. The first thing my 7-year old self would ask them is, “Can you do pull-ups and chin-ups with ease?” If you read my previous paragraph you’ll understand why. If not, go read it again.

“(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” – Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes

Priority #1: getting strong enough to do pull-ups and chin-ups without issue whether fresh or fatigued. Rumor has it that Partick Swayze could do 100 strict pull-ups in a row. Have you ever seen that glorious man with his shirt off? I believe it, dude was yoked. And you best believe no one every put Baby in a corner again either. 1 rep isn’t going to cut it, ideally I’d like to see males and females get to the point of doing 3 sets of 10+ strict reps without issue and especially without kipping. I’ve come across a number of guys and gals that can do kipping pullups and they can barely get 1 strict one. With the leg tuck needing to be strict, kipping isn’t going to save you like it will on your Fran time. Strict, strict, always strict! Pull-ups once were hard for me so I was once in your boat. It wasn’t a quick thing, but I set a goal and worked at it. It might seem like a daunting task, but it is 100% doable.  Also, Swayze had a hit song in ’87 too, it just didn’t make the Hot 100. “She’s Like the Wind” – Patrick Swayze  #RIPSwayze

“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” – U2

I wrote a blog years ago on getting your first pull-up, so if you’re in that boat, I highly recommend taking a gander at that. How to FINALLY do a Strict Pull-Up. But if you want a simplified version, every day do something pull-up related. One day do some pull-ups 3-5 sets of 5-10 reps using a band that makes it hard for 5-10 reps. The goal being progressing to the lightest band possible and eventually no band. The next day do 3-5 sets of 5-8 eccentric pull-ups trying to lower yourself on a 0:05 count each rep. Be sure to come all the way to full elbow extension. The goal is to do this without the need of a band. Try to lower yourself under control and not loose tension at any point. After a couple weeks try to do a pull-up. If you get 1 yay! But seriously go read that blog that’s what it’s there for.

“Lean On Me” – Club Nouveau

Priority #2: Improve your overall core strength/endurance. I don’t care if you can do 85 sit-ups, that doesn’t mean shit. And it sure as hell doesn’t mean your core is strong. It means your hip flexors have the strength-endurance to pull yourself up a bunch of times in 2 minutes. You need to stay tight on the pull-up bar. Tight in your shoulders, arms, legs, back and core. Once you lose that tension you’ll be swinging all over the place and wasting tons of energy. It’s easier to maintain tension the entire time than to go slack and regain tension every rep. No one is going to hang on the pull-up bar for 2:00 mins anyways. So get stronger and feel free to lean on me and join our Online Tactical Strength & Conditioning Team! SIGN UP TODAY for under $1/day!!!

“Open Your Heart” – Madonna

Priority #3: drop 10 lbs. It goes without saying, but is it easier to move 200 lbs or 190 lbs?  Is it easier to move 160 lbs or 150lbs? Open your heart, and close your damn mouth. The truth hurts. I almost used “I Want Your Sex” – George Michael, but I was nervous that I might offend more people if I equated losing 10lbs to George Michael wanting to have sex with you. In all honesty though, I don’t think it’d hurt your chances with him or someone else. But then I realized he passed away a few years ago so it’d have to be a weird Pet Cemetery, Walking Dead sort of thing. So I figured I should just use a Madonna song instead. I feel it works, just not as well. But hey, if you do lose 10 lbs, you’ll probably run fast too!

“You Keep Me Hangin’ On” – Kim Wilde

Bonus Priority: Like I was saying before, no one is going to be hangin’ on the pull-up bar for all 2 mins. Maybe someone will, and it’ll be the person who has a grip like a crocodiles bite. But the fatigue that will have settled in after 60-90 seconds most likely will prevent any more reps. You only need to hang on for as long as it takes you to get 20 reps (or the minimum if you’re one of those people). The stronger you can make your grip the better. Doing movements where you have to pull something toward you, bent-over rows, ring rows, pull-ups (who’d have thought) are great. Any core movements that require you to hold onto something like farmer’s carry’s or Russian twists are also great. And when training your lower body you can opt for DBs or KBs instead of a bar for lunges and step-ups. All of these movements challenge your grip strength. Hell anything where you have to hold onto something that is heavy for a duration of time will make your grip stronger. And having a reserve of grip strength to pull from is always going to help more than it could ever hurt. My Dad said never trust a person with small forearms and a weak grip. #bluecollar

“Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” – Starship

Nothing’s gonna stop you now! You know what you need to do. It’s rather simple, get really strong at pull-ups. I’m sure there is someone that can do some Leg Tucks without being able to do pull-ups or chin-ups. They are the exception and not the rule. If you need help reach out geoff@gpshumanperformance.com. Want a Custom Program I can help you with that. If you want to follow our monthly Tactical Strength & Conditioning programming remotely you can do that as well. 

PS: Take yourself down a rabbit hole, go look at the Top 100 of 1987. I believe the kids these days would say this list is fire…I also hate myself for saying fire in that context.